Pre-emption

There are times I hate how efficient our Nazi maid is at her job. I had notes from yesterday and did not get to write so left them on the counter. Of course she threw them out.

Hedge funds. I worked at one for five years. You are always trying to find that bit of information can give you an edge over everyone else. Hedge funds do talk with each other and exchange information. Material, non-public information is not easy to come by and if you do get it but don't trade with the intent of making money you are in the clear.The problem is what exactly qualifies as material, non-public information. I am saying that every hedge fund at one point or another comes close to that line and often crosses it. Catching and proving intent are difficult because hedge funds have such high turnover (trade a lot in the same names very frequently) that it can be attributed to that turnover. What can be the silver bullet though is if someone is paid money in exchange for information that may be material and non-public. Hell, even now I am trying to find information others don't have so I can have an edge.

So currently the Federal government has oversight of banks in all situations if and when need be, it is called pre-emption. Each state also has their own regulatory body for banks within their jurisdictions. The current debate is when there is a financial reform bill passed who gets final say. States say they should have it as they did not sleep on the job like the Feds did. I can't disagree with them on that point. However, unintended consequences could be the big banks leave states that more onerous regulations than others. Then what? How do you get credit flowing when certain states don't have the banks that can lend. Do we want banks having to have 50 different regulators?

The next thing this leads me to is the whole TBTF (Too Big To Fail) issue and its corollary about banking capacity in the United States. Quite honestly this country probably still has way too many banks. So getting rid of some of the banking capacity is not a bad thing. But that could lead to a smaller number of larger banks. We then run into the issue of TBTF. Which leads me to think heavier regulation would be needed if we cut banking capacity.

So this weekend we have the boys again- just part of the horse trading that goes on between the ex and me. It is also the last weekend of fall baseball- thank God. I think Saturday in the afternoon we are going to go see Cirque de Freak: The Vampire's Assistant. We are also having MP and her bf over for dinner so I will have to make dessert in the morning.

I keep seeing ambulance chasing lawyer ads advertising a phone line called 1-800-BAD-DRUG. I am thinking of calling to see if there are any drugs I have used recently that can get me lots of money from a lawsuit. Speaking of lawsuits, I can't believe people are suing MCD for knowingly selling cancer causing chicken. Apparently when you grill chicken a naturally occurring chemical gets changed into PHiP. Well then why the hell does anyone eat grilled chicken let alone order it?